Messiah College
Honors 497: The Culture of Consumption in American Life
Spring 2005
TU-TH 8:00-9:30
Boyer 322

Instructor: John Fea, Ph.D
Office: Boyer 258
Office Hours: MW: 2:00-3:45, T 10-12, and by appointment.
Phone: x2253
e-mail: jfea@messiah.edu
Syllabus is on-line at: http://www.home.messiah.edu/%7Ejfea/consumersyllabus.htm

Course Description
Consumption has been central to the American experience. Historian James Gilbert has observed, "While American society is the most consumer oriented society in the world, it is also a society that quizzes itself endlessly about the effects of materialism and defining oneself in terms of consumer objects." This honors seminar will examine how and why Americans have come to define the "good life" through consumption and material abundance. Readings will focus on the historical development of the United States as a consumer society as well as contemporary celebrations and critiques of consumerism. Through lots of reading, lots of discussion, and a final research paper students will be asked to think about how they might respond to American consumer culture as human beings, Americans, and people of Christian faith.

Required Textbooks (Available in the Campus Book Store)

Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow: A Novel
David Brooks, Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There
Thomas Frank, The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism
Heather Hendershot, Shaking the World for Jesus: Media and Conservative Evangelical Culture
William Leach, Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Nation
Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

A Word on Outside Reading: Outside reading will be placed on reserve in Murray Library, will be distributed in class, and will be available at various websites. Check the course schedule below to see where to find the reading for each class session.

Course Requirements
This course is a reading seminar. As a result you are expected to complete the assigned reading before the class period in which it will be discussed and arrive prepared to actively engage in class discussion. A reading quiz will be administered most, if not every, class period. You may miss (or I will drop) two quizzes during the course of the semester. All other missed quizzes will be averaged into your quiz grade as a “zero.”

You will be evaluated based on the following:

Reading Quizzes: 33%
Class Participation: 33%
Research Paper and Presentation: 33%

Notes:

2 or more unexcused absences will impact your class participation grade in this course.
Late papers will be penalized a full letter grade for each class period it is late.
AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT: Any student whose disability falls within ADA guidelines should inform the instructor at the beginning of the semester of any special accommodations or equipment needs necessary to complete the requirements for this course. Students must register documentation with the Office of Disability Services (OM 342). If you have questions, call extension 5358.
Plagiarism will be penalized according to college policies. According to the Student Handbook, plagiarism is “submitting as one’s own work part or all of any assignment (oral or written) which is copied, paraphrased, or purchased from another source, including on-line sources without the proper acknowledgment of that source. Examples include: failing to cite a reference, failing to use quotation marks where appropriate, misrepresenting another's work as your own.” The penalty for plagiarizing all or most of a paper is the assignment of an ‘F’ for the course.

Paper
Each student will write a 10-12 page research paper on the ways in which some aspect of consumerism has impacted American life and culture--past or present. Be creative. I will entertain any and all possible paper topics so if you have an idea do not hesitate to run it by me. My only stipulation is that the paper engage primary material. (In other words, if you want to write a paper about advertising, you will need to look at actual advertisements in addition to book about advertising. If you want to write a paper about Christian consumerism you will need to conduct some kind of field research or study catalogs of Christian products, or read Christian periodicals that have advertising, etc... If you want to write a paper about a particular thinker, author, or businessman who has either criticized consumerism, defended consumerism, or participated in consumer activity you will need to read some of his or her works. I think you get the idea. In order to help you, I have a link of consumerism related primary sources posted at my web site: http://home.messiah.edu/%7Ejfea/ I will also use this web page to post paper ideas as they come to me during the first four months of the semester.

Your papers should also include some reflection on your topic from the perspective of Christian faith. This reflection should avoid being too "preachy" in nature and should not be used to disguise weak research. On the other hand, do not hesitate to integrate your personal beliefs into the essay. Sometimes this is best done in an implicit or subtle manner.

I am asking that you come up with a paper topic by the beginning of the fourth week of the semester so that you have plenty of time to work on it. With this in mind, each student will meet with me individually during the week of February 22nd to discuss their topics. During this meeting you should be prepared to explain your topic (and the question you hope to answer) and let me know what kind of research materials you hope to work with. The final paper will be due on May 3rd. Of course, I am available to discuss possible topics or paper ideas at any time and would be happy to read drafts or parts of drafts throughout the course of the semester. Please take advantage of this.

Finally, on one of the last three days of class you will present your work to the rest of the seminar in a 15 minute presentation (with 5 minutes of questions from the rest of the class). You do not need to be finished with the final draft of the paper in order to make this presentation, but you should have most of your ideas formulated by this point so that you can present the crux of your thesis and findings.

Tentative Class Schedule

DATE PROGRAM AND ASSIGNMENTS

Feb. 1: Introduction to the Course

Feb. 3: The Western Roots of Consumption
READ: Find and read a short on-line biography of Bernard Mandeville, Adam Smith, and David Hume. Then read Bernard Mandeville's Introductory Remarks to "The Fable of the Bees; or Private Vices, Publick Benefits;" Excerpts from Mandeville's "The Fable of the Bees;" Excerpts from Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations; Excerpt from David Hume, "Of Commerce." (All of this reading is available in the handout distributed in class).

Feb. 8: The American Synthesis: Democracy, Capitalism, and Protestantism
READ: Christopher Lasch, "The Culture of Consumption." (Distributed in class).' Michael Schudson, "Delectable Materialism: Second Thoughts on Consumer Culture" (On Reserve in Murray Library).

Feb 10: Critics of Consumerism and Celebrations of Consumerism
READ: Karl Marx, "The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof;" Thorstein Veblen, "Conspicuous Consumption;" John Kenneth Galbraith, "The Dependence Effect" (Distributed in class); James Twitchell, "Two Cheers for Materialism" (Full text available through Pro Quest).

Feb. 15: Land of Desire
READ: Leach, Land of Desire, Intro, Ch. 1-3

Feb. 17: Land of Desire
READ: Leach, Land of Desire, Ch. 4-6

Feb. 22: Land of Desire
READ: Leach, Land of Desire, Ch. 7-9

Feb. 24: Land of Desire
READ: Leach, Land of Desire, Ch. 10-12, Conclusion

Mar. 1: The World of Port William
READ: Berry, Jayber Crow, Part One

Mar. 3: The World of Port William
READ: Berry, Jayber Crow, Part Two

March 5-13: SPRING BREAK

Mar. 15: The World of Port William
READ: Berry, Jayber Crow, Part Three

Mar. 17: 1960s America and the Conquest of Cool
READ: Frank, The Conquest of Cool , Ch. 1-6

Mar. 22: 1960s America and the Conquest of Cool
READ: Frank, The Conquest of Cool, Ch. 7-11

Mar. 24: America's Bourgeois Bohemians
READ: Brooks, Bobo's In Paradise, Ch. 1-4

Mar. 29: America's Bourgeois Bohemians
READ: Brooks, Bobo's in Paradise, Ch. 5-7

Mar. 31: Fast Food Nation
READ: Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, Introduction, Ch. 1-2

Apr. 5: Fast Food Nation
READ: Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, Ch. 3-5

April 7: Fast Food Nation: Viewing of the Film: "Supersize Me."
READ: Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, Ch. 6-8

Apr. 12: Fast Food Nation: Discussion of "Supersize Me."
READ: Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, Ch. 9-10, Epilogue

Apr. 14: Evangelical Consumers
READ: Hendershot, Shaking the World for Jesus , Ch. 1-3

Apr. 19: Evangelical Consumers
READ: Hendershot, Shaking the World for Jesus, Ch. 4-6, Conclusion.

Apr. 21: SERVICE DAY: No Class

Apr. 26: Student Presentations

Apr. 28: Student Presentations

May 3: Student Presentations